1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for combining image data and format depicting data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital still cameras have become very popular. In these digital still cameras, photographed digital images are stored in a recording medium such as a memory card.
When printing the photographed digital images, the digital still camera is connected to an external device, such as a personal computer, and the photographed digital images are transmitted to the external device. The photographed digital images are then printed by a printer attached to the external device.
However, the job of connecting a digital still camera to a personal computer, transferring the photographed digital images from the digital still camera to the personal computer, connecting a printer to the personal computer, and operating the personal computer to print the photographed digital images on the printer is not an easy job for a common man. To make the printing process easy, there has been developed a technology in which a digital still camera can be directly connected to a printer.
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Nos. H11-8831, 2000-71575, 2002-16833 disclose various techniques for printing images with or without using a personal computer.
In some conventional digital still cameras it is possible to insert images into spaces prepared in a template form. However, when the number of images to be printed does not match with the spaces in the form, an undesirable result is obtained. For example, when the spaces are more and the images to be printed are less, some of the spaces remain blank.